


Pop Culture Reafferences

by Overherenow



Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Team as Family, gratuitous pop culture references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:42:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25868377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Overherenow/pseuds/Overherenow
Summary: In which soft nothings are spoken, Joe and Nicky's love is affirmed and Nile realises just how much pop culture the team has absorbed over the years.
Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Comments: 2
Kudos: 157





	Pop Culture Reafferences

Nile played with the end of one of her braids as she and Andy waited on a wall next to some random park somewhere in Paris for Copley’s people to pick them up. Andy was smoking a cigarette, lazily blowing the smoke up into the heavily light-polluted night sky. Nile could just make out the glitter of stars through the haze and found herself missing the wide-open skies of the desert from her deployments. She feels a sudden pang of loss over her old life for all that she healed insanely quickly now not yet time has passed to heal those wounds of her friends and comrades looking at her with fear. 

She feels more than realises Andy’s gaze on her. She turns to give a tight smile to the older immortal which is made into a real smile when Andy somehow makes the next cloud of smoke turn into a smoke ring. Nile wonders how Andy learned to do that, wonders if she can do other shapes or even a pirate ship (Like Gandalf!) or make the smoke change colours. Resolving to add learning to make smoke rings on to her ever-extending list of things she wants to learn. 

Nicky and Joe are on the other side of the Andy curled up together where they had been murmuring what sounded like sweet nothings to each other in several different languages over the last ten or fifteen minutes. It is almost sickeningly sweet and she kind of wants to roll her eyes but it's also kind of awe-inspiring how much they love each other after so long.

“You are my true north” Joe is saying in English now “Without you, I would be lost in the woods?”

Nile blinks “Wait did you just quote Frozen?” She asks with a certain level of horrified confusion.

Joe looks at her offended “Frozen 2 actually.” He replies. 

Andy lets out a bitter laugh “Joe has always turned to somebody else's words when he runs out of his own I remember when he discovered Shakespeare’s sonnets.” She shakes her head “I think I might have them all memorised.” 

“Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?” Nick says good humour colouring his voice “thou art more lovely and more temperate.” but his thumb gently caressing Joe’s shoulder turns the teasing into something real and genuine.

“My little nest of vipers,” Joe says back to him equally fondly and Nile wonders how two people just looking at each other can be so not safe for work. She bites down the temptation to remind them that they are in fact in public despite the late hour or go and find a very large bucket of water to throw over them. Seeing that Nile can't get that reference, Nicky takes pity on her “it's from Fawlty Towers, a BBC show from the 1970s.” He nods to himself “We should do a rewatch.” 

Andy smirks “Yeah I like the bit where he beats up the car with that tree branch. I hate modern transport, it's so unreliable. What was wrong with horses?” She grumbles.

Nicky takes Joe's hand and says solemnly “Your my Mirah Carey.”

“Schitt's creek?” Nile guesses and doesn't even bother to hide her fist pump when Nicky confirms with a thumbs up.

“I love and I like you,” Joe says back to Nicky.

“Parks and Rec!” Nile crows gleefully thoroughly enjoying the game.

“You are my lobster,” Nicky tells him very seriously and they link their thumbs and forefingers together in an approximation of two lobsters holding claws. Even though they were just joking a few minutes ago for some reason the endearment hangs heavily in the air. And even though it is a stupid TV reference from the ’90s or early 2000’s seeing the genuine emotion behind the sentiment that was played out of the screen in real life between two people who actually mean it is heartwrenching.

For a heartbeat, Nile wishes that somebody would look at her like that one day until she and Andy meet each other's eye and the humour rushes back in. Nile starts making fake gagging noises. “Urgh” Nile groans, “I think you're giving me diabetes.”

“You’ve only known them a few months,” Andy tells her “I have known them for so many centuries and it has always been like this. At least you haven't walked in on them yet.” 

Nicky settles into the crook of Joe’s arm and stares at them. Joe flails out an arm like he’s blocking an imaginary blow “Ping!” he says “Ping! Ping! Ping” making absurd blocking moments each time he makes the sound effect. 

“That's the sound of your hatred bouncing off our love,” Nicky tells them with a smirk on his face. Before the playful argument can get out of hand a sleek black car draws up all the hallmarks that Nile has learned, usually identifies one of Copley's cars. “Come on” Andy leads the way to the car “let's get away from the lovebirds Nile.” But she’s only joking as she the four of them climb into the car to head on to the next job.

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching the infamous "He's your lobster scene" from Friends and was obviously thinking about the Old Guard this kind of spun itself from that. I hope at least some of you find it funny.
> 
> I included the Shakespeare Quote from Sonnet 18 because 1) I like it and 2) it was written for The Fair Youth AKA a young man so I couldn't resist. My favourite Sonnet is actually 130 but I couldn't work that one in so easily. 
> 
> The endearments are from Frozen 2 (Kristoff about Anna from the song lost in the woods), Shakspeare  
> s Sonnet 18 (the Fair Youth), Fawlty towers (Basil about his wife Sybil), Schitt's Creek (David and Patrick), Parks and recreation (Ben and Leslie on their wedding day), Friends (Pheobe on Ross and Rachel) and Scrubs (Turk and Carla.)


End file.
